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TMD and Facial pain can be very debilitating! Unless you've experienced it yourself, it's hard to imagine having pain speaking, eating, and even smiling.

Stretching a muscle with high tone works, AFTER the muscle fatigues or you stretch long enough to change the perception of stretch. That's not normally a rapid process as the more the nervous system perceives stretch, muscles tend to increase in tone to fight the passive stretch.

Stop beating yourself with mobility balls, or doing painful pin and stretch techniques. Do they work, yes! Do they have to be painful, absolutely not! Isometrics are great modulators of pain and reduces the perception of stretch. After inhibiting the pec minor with light palpation and resisted isometric shoulder elevation, an anteriorly tipped scapula is often temporarily in a better set position at rest.

In this snippet of a mini case from MMT Premium, I go over Positional Inhibition of the Upper Trap for Ulnar Neurodynamic Dysfunction. With pre-test, ULNT 3 was DP - dysfunctional and painful. After reducing tone/tenderness by slacking her right upper trap passively for about a minute, re-testing was to end range and much less painful.

You don't need painful techniques like neurodynamic tensioners or Dry Needling. They work, but if you had the choice for pain free techniques that got similar or better results, why fight fire with fire?

Upper Trap Positional Inhibition for Ulnar Neurodynamic Dysfunction

The full 28 min mini case with the entire progression is on MMT Premium!

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Want an approach that enhances your existing evaluation and treatment? No commercial model gives you THE answer. You need an approach that blends the modern with the old school. Live cases, webinars, lectures, Q&A, hundreds of techniques and more! Check out Modern Manual Therapy!

Keeping it Eclectic...

It's that time of the year again! By that, I mean it's a holiday in the US, so the team needs to take a break from writing and shooting all our awesome content. If you missed any of it this year, here are our Top 5 Posts of the First Half of 2017.

5) Single Leg Rehab Considerations

• by Dr. Peter Malliaras of Tendinopathyrehab.com
• Peter's posts have been very popular and welcome on MMT Blog as they provide a great insight and clinically applicable information for Tendinopathy

4) Pain Free Subscapularis Inhibition

• need to improve shoulder elevation, but many of your go to techniques are uncomfortable?
• this is a great variation on a classic technique that uses PNF to make the technique pain free and greatly reduce perception of stretch and tone

3) A Novel Mobilization for Frozen Shoulder

• this was a recent but very popular post
• true frozen shoulders are slow responders and I have been guilty in the past just like many other clinician in trying to hurry the process along
• while typically we cannot drastically improve their mobility rapidly, we can modulate pain, decrease tone, and get them moving better in all planes with much less perceived threat

2) [CLINICAL PEARL]  A Novel Technique to Improve Lateral Shifts

• this was one of my favorite posts of the year as I discovered this technique as kind of a last ditch effort to correct an ipsilateral lateral shift
• I've since started this as an assessment for people with recurrent loss of ability to accept load in the LQ or with single limb stability issues (it's not just glut med weakness)
• I'll shoot that video soon as it's become part of my "chains" assessment

1) 5 Things That Should Be Retired from the PT Profession

• ahhh controversy never fails to be popular
• What does contributor Dr. Dennis Treubig think should be retired from the PT profession along with my quick list?

Thanks to everyone for reading this year, sharing, and all your comments and questions. Keep them coming and to everyone in the US or if you happen to have an upcoming holiday, have a great time with your friends and family!

Want an approach that enhances your existing evaluation and treatment? No commercial model gives you THE answer. You need an approach that blends the modern with the old school. Live cases, webinars, lectures, Q&A, hundreds of techniques and more! Check out Modern Manual Therapy!

Keeping it Eclectic...

Frozen shoulders are Slow Responders. You don't expect in most cases to get rapid improvement in mobility. True issues in the tissues take time with repeated low loads to have adaptation occur. You can however, get rapid response in pain modulation along with a little extra threat free movement in every plane with this simple technique.

Many frozen shoulders can be extra sensitized to movement in most directions. This is compounded by the often strong perception of stretch in every plane of movement. You can rapidly decrease sensitivity and gain a little mobility in every plane by giving the capsule, ligaments, and muscles a break by slacking them. This is novel in itself because most want to stretch already sensitized tissues. After holding for 30-90 seconds, lightly release and recheck the active and passive movement. Mobility usually improves a bit, but sensitivity often improves significantly. Frozen shoulders are slow responders in mobility, but you can still modulate pain rapidly.

A Novel Mobilization for Frozen Shoulder

Want an approach that enhances your existing evaluation and treatment? No commercial model gives you THE answer. You need an approach that blends the modern with the old school. Live cases, webinars, lectures, Q&A, hundreds of techniques and more! Check out Modern Manual Therapy!

Keeping it Eclectic...